5 things to consider before you develop an eCommerce platform

If you are planning to develop eCommerce platform, you need to know first that eCommerce website development has its challenges and vital things to consider. Industry specialists have foreseen that businesses opting for eCommerce platforms will surpass $2 trillion in the years to come, and it’s the fastest-growing market today.

There are a lot of factors that you must consider before you develop e-commerce platform. It should meet performance, user experience, and more. That’s why you must ensure you have a strong plan before starting anything. In this article, we’ll be discussing six things to consider before building an e-commerce platform, and some additional recommendations that will guide you on the right path.

Goal setting and business analysis

To start with, you need to have a complete understanding of your business objectives. You should determine first your target consumers and market. Know your client preferences on what they like and dislike, as well as their spending ability, way of shopping, etc. These details about your target market and customers will help you think of the features you should include in the platform and also develop a marketing campaign for your e-commerce solution.

Check out competitor platforms

After getting a clear idea of what’s your target market and client preferences, as well as how to obtain it, you need to perform some competitive research. And find out who else has set up a platform for eCommerce website development. If you choose to develop eCommerce website for home improvement, you’ll have to check out who else has a platform for home improvement. These businesses are considered your competitors.

Define the project requirements

Now, you can address your project requirements. You need to identify what precisely are things that should include in the eCommerce website development phase. Identify project requirements such as what functionality and features you should implement, what customizations are necessary, which third-party integrations you need to apply, and what will be the responsibilities and roles of your internal project team.

Determine all data migration needs

This pertains to the businesses that have an existing eCommerce platform, and want to develop eCommerce website to a different platform. Migrating data can get very challenging and complex, that’s why getting it right is crucial to make sure your migration strategy will be a success.

Decide What Needs to be Migrated

The following are some of the important elements that require data migration:

• Promotions/coupons
• Product review
• Order history
• Customer accounts, which include customer data, email addresses, addresses, usernames, and passwords
• Catalog data migration

Choose between hosted/on-premise or cloud-based platform

An on-premise or hosted platform is installed at the merchant’s data center and is remotely linked through an internet connection. With this kind of platform, the website vendor can maintain the e-commerce platform server, with the help of an internet connection.

A cloud-based e-commerce platform is hosted and run by the cloud service provider. The applications, programs, and data are stored and can be accessed with the help of an internet connection. If the client decides to develop eCommerce website on a cloud-based hosting platform, the service provider is in charge of taking care of networking functions, security, and data center.

Integrations and Add-ons

Before the client can start an eCommerce website development, it’s essential that an e-commerce platform must have integrations and add-ons. The integration abilities of an e-commerce platform are what enable e-commerce businesses to customize their website around what they need and what they will benefit from the overall experience.

Regardless of the e-commerce site, the platform you should build must have these important integrations:

• Marketing: This includes efficiency for things such as email campaigns, automation, social, personalization, remarketing, and so on.
• Payment options: When planning to develop eCommerce website, your e-commerce platform must include the integrations to accept a wide range of payment options.
• Analytics: The platform must contain the appropriate reporting function to help you determine your traffic sources, traffic numbers, ranking keywords, and how users are engaging with the e-commerce website.
• Loyalty: If one of the goals of eCommerce website development is also to compete in a specific market, the platform must consider some kind of loyalty program. It can give consumers a good reason to visit the website again and make a purchase.
• Review management: Having an excellent consumer review management integration is one of the most significant aspects when businesses decide to develop eCommerce website.
• Sales funnel: The sales funnel pertains to the process users take on their journey to making a purchase. In the world of e-commerce, the sales funnel involves integrations for elements like conversion optimization, upsells, cross-sells, and more. Chatbots can be considered as one of the power buttons of integrations.

Need help developing an eCommerce platform?

The e-commerce world is a complex, diverse, and constantly-changing element. The platform you choose to build may symbolize any e-commerce businesses, which is the most essential factor that demonstrates their long-term success. Digital Solutions has a comprehensive understanding of e-commerce businesses and other digital ordering systems. You can reach out anytime if you want us to help you plan on building an e-commerce platform.